Scandinavian Silver and Bronze
In search of that elusive tug on the line that only comes from downstream Salmon fishing, we are lead anywhere and everywhere we think offers a chance of attaining this feeling. Salmon tend to live in beautiful places and this was no exception when my brother and I embarked on a trip to Scandinavia over our usual fishing in Scotland. Our plan for the trip was to keep the budget similar to that of a weeks fishing in Scotland but go somewhere with a real possibility of catching a big lump of a Salmon, the JPS tape measure goes up to 150cm and I'm keen to use every bit of this.... one day. We decided on Norway and looked for rivers close to major airports, we were able to fly direct to Trondheim so our decision was narrowed down to the Gaula and Orkla rivers, we decided that we would fish a small area so that travel time and learning different beats would be reduced so rather than fishing both which is entirely possible, we concentrated on fishing the upper Orkla river. My brother undertook the research for the trip and found accommodation in a small hut, a well priced rental car and Elveguiden - an app similar to fishpal over here which lets you book individual beats with ease. We were soon able to put something together, book our flights, pack our bags and head over to Norway on a fresh adventure.
Arriving in Norway, its clear from the onset this is a beautiful country with friendly people and is really easy to navigate. Our cabin was small and basic, perfect for us as we would be fishing most of the time. I think it's fair to say with only a few weeks from planning to execution of the trip, we didn't have the choice of the best beats and upon arriving, conditions were mediocre with a lot of sunshine and lowish water. This went both ways, fishing would be tough at times and we would really need to work at it to catch anything, on the other hand, we found ourselves on a beat of 5 rods but we would be the only 2 fishing as I presume the Norwegian locals who had booked the other 3 say deemed the conditions poor and not worth fishing. I think we were both happy with this outcome. We also found booking 2 beats to be an option when fishing was slow, with the fishing costing per rod between £30 and £50 per day, it isn't unrealistic to book a couple of beats and circulate between the main pools on each whilst giving everything ample rest in between. We were able to fish the same day as we'd set off, the fishing in Norway is sold per day for 24 hours, from mid day to mid day the following day, this worked out perfectly for our travel logitics.
Eggan Vald
Eggan Vald
Rokkones The first evening fishing was a shock to the system, the rivers are bigger than fishing the UK and that takes some getting used to, they have stronger flows meaning more difficult wading but essentially some great fly water. Upon arriving at Eggan Vald, this was the highest we would see the river all week and we tepidly waded the edges whilst trying to work out where the fish would lie, we decided it was the far half of the beat which looked really deep toward the tail and would surely hold many fish, our casts simply weren't long enough to get a decent drift, we had a few reactions to red Frances flies but no takes and saw very few fish. Retiring that night, we'd already had to have a hard think about how to catch any fish, if you are anything like me, there's always a niggling thought in your head that it's possible to blank for a weeks fishing so the first fish is always a big relief, tomorrow would be the day. Day two started on the same beat and with no other anglers in site, we gave it a good go, brilliant sunshine prevailed and we could now see we could wade slightly further and cover the deeper water more effectively on the far bank. Convinced the fish would be deep, we used a mix of fast sink 7 inch per second 10 foot tips and sinking lines with tips and heavy flies on the end. We found the river to be either fast enough or deep enough that we hardly ever caught the bottom but a lot of green weed on the move would often have us retrieving all our line to clear the flies. This could be frustrating as well as not seeing many fish and still without a pull to our rods, we moved on to the next beat Hoel Vald.
Hoel Vald Hoel Vald beat is a lovely fly water beat with 3 long decent pools holding many fish. We fished it down, again with the deep set up, changing flies and approach but the fish weren't very reactive to what we were using, eventually a pull came from a cast in to some slack water between two steamy sections of water, the fly landed and was instantly grabbed which was a great sight behold. It was however a brownie, a decent one of around 2 pounds. It was a fish but without any migration in it's life, I had to be somewhat of a snob and demand more, a sea run brown trout or Salmon was still needed. It wasn't until the third day of our trip my brother hooked in to a grilse which was very welcomed, it had taken a piglet tube with 4 feelers, exactly what you'd expect from a back end fish, further down the same pool, he got another one, bigger at around 7 pounds, we thought we'd cracked it, this is the depth, speed and fly they would take. Unfortunately, despite trying a lot more, these were the only fish from this set up all week.
Larsholen
Rokkones
Rokkones Now blanking for the trip was ticked off the list, we seemed to get in to more of a groove, we visited multiple beats throughout the week, going back on Eggan Vald, Hoel Vald and trying out some other beats - Larsholen and Rokkenes. My fish eventually arrived following my brother down a pool with his beloved piglet on the end, the fish turned its nose up at that but couldn't resist a red Frances twitched past its nose. From here on out we changed the tactics up, floating lines with long leaders, sinking set ups, fast, slow and never found one set up that caught more than one fish aside from the initial piglet fly which caught the first two. I caught potentially the smallest grilse I've ever caught ripping a Sunray round the tail of a pool, a (maybe) 2 pound fresh fish smacked it and gave a good account of itself considering it's lean size. We went back to British river tactics quite a lot over the last couple of days which were quite successful, fishing a floating set up with a size 12 dressed fly, we managed a few fish, all gave a really gently take taking a small bit of line before us lifting and feeling that unmistakeable weight of a Salmon on the end, other fishers there couldn't believe we would fish with such small bland flies when the water was so cold and the end of the season was imminent, the fish however have seen everything, the water is clear and it seemed to work a few times at least, proof is in the pudding on this occasion.
Micro grilse The highlight of the trip was likely a sea trout my brother caught, an 8 pound brute which took him to his backing eventually tiring and coming in. A farmer who owned a portion of the beat was cutting the grass in his tractor could see the commotion, he stopped his tractor to watch, showing his little girl who was sat in the tractor with him and explaining what was going on, hopefully it plants a seed and she is out fishing on her fathers beat before long. All in all, we rang the changes, fished hard, changed beats often and had a great time, a couple of sore shoulders, backs, feet and eyes but amazing memories which will live on. Ending the week, we managed 7 Salmon up to 7 pounds, a Sea trout of 8 pounds and 2 brownies of 2 pounds each. We are hoping to head back next summer albeit a bit earlier and hopefully get in touch with some big fish.
The Sea Trout Thanks for your support with the JPS Fly Fishing range of fishing tackle, it's been fantastic to hear people are enjoying the products and finding them useful. I have some ideas in motion to bring a few more out for next season so keep watching the YouTube and visiting the website for the latest updates. Tight lines, James